My eyes are glued to the golden bastard. My arrow is rock steady. Raising my voice, I call out, “Over here.”
Hunter’s steps are quick and sure. My crazy acute senses pick up the crunch of fallen leaves, the slap of his boots against the dirt path. He comes up on my right.
“Come back to the cabin. No sign of Maron, darlin’, but I glimpsed a nymph and that means— ah, Hades.”
I can imagine the scene. There’s me and my silver bow, facing off against the blonde stranger. Hunter might have been gone for maybe three minutes, tops. Probably not what he expected to find when he came back.
“Nice try, Huntsman,” Alex says, a strange gleam in his pale eyes. “But you know damn well who I am.”
“Archer.” Hunter’s drawl is closer to a sneer. No love lost there.
I slide my gaze over in time to see him surge forward, slipping his arm beneath his cloak before drawing his sword out. He doesn’t step in front of me exactly, almost like he’s careful not to block my shot. Raising the point of his sword high, right under Alex’s chin, he growls, “Leave her alone.”
Alex stares Hunter down. The guy has gotta be nuts. If Hunter came at me with his sword, I would get away from it as fast as I could. With barely a curl to his lip, Alex moves closer. The sharp tip is tickling his Adam’s apple and he doesn’t even flinch.
“You can’t be serious.”
Hunter grits his teeth. “Dead.”
“Please.” Alex lets out a soft snort. “You of all people should know that she’s safe with me.”
“Hmm. Before or after you shoot another arrow, Archer?”
The crazy bastard tilts up his head, pressing even nearer to Hunter’s sword. “I’ve come unarmed. The only one shooting arrows is my sis—”
“Back up,” Hunter cuts in roughly, “or I’ll send you down below.”
“The Underworld? Please. As if one of your kind could do any harm to someone like me.” With a pointed look in my direction, Alex adds, “Like us.”
“Like us?” I echo. What the hell is that supposed to mean?
The testosterone in the clearing is so thick, I’m amazed I’m not choking on it. Hunter’s the one with the weapon, but something tells me that Alex is infinitely more dangerous. His lips twitch, like he’s finding all of this funny.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know. Tut, tut, Huntsman. What have you been telling her?”
“Enough. She doesn’t need to know anything else.”
“And I’m sure you’re quite happy to keep her that way.”
It hits me that I’m the her and the she they’re talking about. “Hey! Don’t talk about me like I’m not here.”
They both ignore me.
“It’s better for her to learn the truth on her own,” Hunter snaps. “I won’t let you twist her up with your stories.”
“You don’t honestly believe that you’re gonna end up the hero of this tale? How has that worked out for you so far?”
“We’re fine.”
“Oh?” One perfectly shaped eyebrow rises so high, it nearly disappears. “Before or after the scorpions almost got their revenge? Or the satyr offended her?”
Hunter’s jaw tightens. “The only true danger to her has been your bow. Let’s not forget that.”
Alex’s gaze narrows down the length of Hunter’s sword. His eyes light up. “That’s right. I fired an arrow at you only yesterday. And, yet, here you are, waving that sword at me. You don’t seem to be in any pain. Your hand is steady. Why’s that?”
My head is spinning at the pace of this conversation. But you know what? Blondie has a point. It never occurred to me until he pointed it out. How can Hunter handle the heavy sword without so much as a flinch? No one’s pain tolerance is that high.
Either he’s really brave or riding high on bravado because Alex takes his eyes off of Hunter to slant a conspiratorial look my way. “Everything I’ve said is the truth. I’m the good guy here. He’s the one who can’t be trusted. What else is he lying to you about?”
Without Alex daring him, Hunter pulls his sword back. With an angry gesture, he turns the point down to the dirt. “I’ve never lied to Noelle.”
“That true?” Alex asks me.
I… I’m not so sure. My mind is stuck on the easy way he’s handling his sword. There’s no stiffness. No gentle ease of his injured arm.
It’s almost as if he’s not injured at all.
“He threatened Maron with his sword. Last night, not that long after you shot him.” I think back. His motion was stiff. Jerky. Still, with the injury, the weight should’ve been too much. I thought that yesterday before shrugging it off. Now I’m suspicious.
Hunter must have heard something in my voice. He glances over at me before he glares at Alex. “I heal quickly.”
“That quickly?” Alex rests his chin on his hand. “Makes me wonder if you’re making a big deal out of nothing. If my arrow did hit you, it must’ve been a flesh wound.”
It’s obvious that these two know each other. It’s also really friggin’ clear that they don’t like each other. No matter how curious Alex’s flippant accusations against Hunter are making me, my loyalty is to only one of these guys.
Besides, the image of Hunter’s gruesome injury and the sound the arrow made when I pulled it out of his back will be stuck with me forever. Flesh wound? My ass.
“No,” I say, interrupting their little staring contest. “There was a big, gaping hole in his shoulder. Blood was everywhere. You stuck him good all right, you dickhead.” I move over to Hunter’s side before gesturing for him to turn around and bend slightly. “Look. I’ll show you. Hunter, take off the cloak.”
Hunter doesn’t move. Lowering his voice, he murmurs, “Darlin’, no. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Yes,” echoes Alex. “Why not, Huntsman? Unless, of course, you’ve something to hide.”
I start pawing at the leather cloak. “Just let me show him.”
“Noelle—”
“Please?” I want to wipe that smug grin off of Alex’s face so bad. “For me?”
Hunter winces, a quick shuttering of his eyes before he’s reluctantly nodding. “Anything for you, darlin’.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Alex stiffen. The easygoing, joker-type grin he was wearing suddenly disappears. “Don’t talk to her like that. You don’t get to.”
Why the hell does he care?
It doesn’t make sense that he’s openly bothered by the way Hunter speaks to me. Even I’ve gotten used to his darling’s. But if it pisses the bastard archer off for some reason? I’ll answer to that and only that.
Hunter lets me remove his cloak. I hurriedly fold it into something that passes for a lopsided ball shape and set it at my feet. Then, with a smirk that tells Alex that I’m about to be proven right, I lift up on my tippytoes and yank the collar on the back of Hunter’s linen shirt.
I’m faced with an expanse of beautifully bronzed skin. No bandages at all. Huh. I guess he didn’t bother wrapping the injury up with gauze again today. Maybe the bleeding stopped at last and he’s letting it breathe.
Or, I realize a heartbeat later, there’s no need for any fucking bandages at all.
There’s a pale pink mark around the size of a dime that mars his shoulder. It’s a scar.
All that’s left of the arrow hole is a goddamn scar.
16
“It’s gone,” I whisper. I yank the shirt some more, just in case I’m wrong about where he got hit. Nope. “It’s… it’s gone. How?”
He swallows. I can see the movement in his jaw, down his throat. He turns away from the heat of my accusing stare. I’m probably choking him with the death grip I have on his shirt. I don’t care. I need to hear his explanation.
“I told ya both,” he mumbles. “I heal quickly.”
I can’t help it. I run my finger over the puckered scar. By tomorrow, even that’ll probably be gone.
Letting go of his shirt, I back away. My
hands lift to my mouth and I breathe out through the gaps between my fingers. “Damn it, Hunter, how? How is this possible?”
“It’s this place,” Alex offers. “I guess you could say... depending on the injury… that all of us here have the ability to heal quickly. Just one more reason why you’re going to want to— Zeus, Hera and Hades! What in the gods’ names are you doing?”
I tune him out. While he was going on and on in that smarmy smug manner of his, I started to hop on one foot while lifting the other one up off of the grass. As flexible as I am, I’m not built to be a pretzel so I drop down to the ground. My bow goes flying as I immediately reach for my foot again.
These stupid sandals are still too tight. I don’t waste any time trying to fight the knot. With a rough shove, I push the sandal as far to the side as I can.
It’s enough.
I run my hand across the sole of my foot. I’m not sure if I should be frightened or amazed. The nasty cut I swore I got when I was running from and then fighting the scorpions? The one that hurt so much and bled so badly before I looked at it and discovered it was only a minor scrape?
There’s no sign of it at all. The bottom of my foot—except for a ton of caked-on dirt—is a healthy pink, without a single mark or scar. I lick my finger and scrub at the dirt in case it’s hiding underneath. Nope. It’s like I was never cut.
Or that it has healed so completely that you’d never know I was harmed.
Alex’s voice drifts from somewhere over my head.
“Away from the mirrorside, here we are in the land of legends. The land of myths. It’s hard to kill a god in the Other. Demi-gods? Not so much,” he adds with a pointed look at Hunter. “You just have to make the shot count and we both know I could’ve if that was my aim. I didn’t want to, though. I didn’t want to upset my—”
“Archer,” Hunter warns. “Don’t.”
Alex continues like he hasn’t heard Hunter. “—My sister.”
My jaw drops as my head snaps up to face the two guys. I blink, then strangle out one word: “Sister?”
Hunter curses under his breath.
Alex’s silvery grey eyes gleam in triumph. “Twin sister.”
“You’re crazy.” With a quick jerk, I replace the sandal so that I can jump to my feet and face off against Alex. He looks so certain, so in control that it’s all I can do not to reach out and slug him. I focus instead on the truth. My truth. “I— I don’t have a brother. I definitely don’t have a twin.”
“You do,” Alex says. “Me.”
The cocky bastard has the nerve to sweep into a low bow.
I shake my head. A quick glance at Hunter reveals nothing. He’s not going to be any help. “No. I don’t.”
Alex straightens, then shrugs. “You might not. Then again, you certainly do.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He moves closer to me until there’s only about a foot separating us. I’m too stunned to even think about backing off. Then, quick as a flash, he reaches out and grabs my hand. I don’t know what surprises me more: that he’s touching me, or that his skin is hot. Not clammy, not sweaty, but like the touch of his hand is almost burning mine.
He tugs on my hand, waiting until I’m looking directly into his unblinking stare. I might think he’s full of it. Alex obviously believes what he’s about to tell me.
“I’ve always been Artemis’s twin.”
No. At the sound of that name, I jerk my hand out of his. I can still feel the tingle where his fingertips seared my skin.
“Artemis, the eternal maiden.”
Uh-uh. No way. My stomach flips. I grit my teeth. “Stop.”
He doesn’t. “Artemis, the huntress.”
I’m suddenly shaky. It doesn’t matter that I clamped my jaw shut. I’m gonna be sick anyway.
“Artemis, goddess of the moon.”
I glance up at Alex again, silently pleading with him to shut up. I don’t know if it’s because I’m queasy or if I’m trying too hard to pretend this isn’t happening. It doesn’t matter. I can only stand to look at him for a heartbeat before I turn away. He’s almost blinding, a strange golden light shining from behind him, making him impossible to look at.
Or maybe that’s the absolute certainty written on his face that I don’t want to see.
And then he says, “You.”
Yup. There it is.
I bend over, dropping to my knees in the dirt before vomiting my breakfast all over Alex’s prissy golden sandals.
“What in Hades have you been feeding her?”
“Leave her be.”
“Dear gods, do you know what I had to barter for these sandals?”
“I told you to leave her be, you golden fool. It’s your damn fault she got sick in the first place! She’s only been on this side of the mirror a handful of days. You can’t throw all that at her and expect her to… to understand her place here. She doesn’t know Apollo. She doesn’t even know me—not really. Give her some time. Some space. She’s worth it.”
“Oh? So that’s how it is? Ryan? You’re the perv who lets my sister run around the woods in a nightgown, but I’m the bad guy for wanting her to appear a little more decent? You lie to her about who she is and what she is, yet it’s my shoes she ruins when I try to be a good brother and educate her a little. You—”
I fist my hands in the grass when I hear Alex’s snappish tone go on and on above me. Refusing to look at either of them, I focus instead on the frantic way he tries in vain to wipe the puke off on some of the taller blades in front of me. I wish I could smile because, well, my aim there was just as good as when I shot my bow.
I already don’t feel well. His bitching is adding to it, making my head pound. Even Hunter’s soft growl is grating. Squinting my eyes, I rest back on my heels and grit two words out between my teeth. “Shut. Up.”
Alex stops whining long enough to notice that I’m probably not a threat to his precious sandals anymore. There might be a flash of concern as he looks down on me. “Artemis? You all right?”
“Noelle,” Hunter corrects gently. He crouches down next to me, his cloak pooling out behind him. He must have retrieved it from the dirt and slung it back on when I was facing off against Alex. Probably wants me to forget about the missing hole in his back.
The reminder makes me wish I could puke on cue. He deserves some on his boots, too.
“No.” I stumble weakly as I shove my own cloak away from me, careful that I don’t trip as I slowly get back to my feet. Hunter holds out his arm and I delight in also shoving him away. I don’t want his help.
My bow, though? I want that. I swoop down and grab it.
It hangs in my limp grip. I take a second to wipe the back of my hand across my mouth. I spit on the ground, trying to get rid of the vomit taste. I can see Hunter reaching beneath his cloak to untie the canteen at his waist. That pisses me off. No way am I taking anything from him ever again
Doesn’t mean I’m gonna give him back what I’ve already got. I’m furious, but just because we can all agree that I’ve been naive and too trustful, it doesn’t mean that I’m also that stupid. He kept insisting the bow was mine?
I reach behind me. Nocking an arrow against the bow, I eye Alex first, then Hunter.
“Okay.” I clear my throat. Holy shit, my mouth tastes awful. I force the bile back. “Okay. Both of you, you better listen and listen good. You’ve got the advantage. I get that. You know this place. I’m obviously clueless. But there’s something that you guys don’t know and that’s me. So far, I’ve been nothing but nice. No more. I got no problem shooting you to prove it.”
I glare up at Alex. He waves cheerfully. I decide I will shoot him first. “You’re fast. But you missed before. I don’t miss. When I aim for you the next time, I’ll hit you.”
“Next time?” Hunter’s left dimple makes a fleeting appearance. “You’ve already shot at him, darlin’?”
That sets Alex off.
“‘Darling’ again
? I thought I told you.” A flash of fury cuts through his mocking good mood as he storms toward Hunter. “Artemis deserves your respect. You owe it to her.”
“Shut it,” I snap at him. I don’t need him standing up for me. He’s not my brother. He’s not my friend. He’s a friggin’ weirdo with a bow. He’s nothing to me.
But Hunter—
Feeling shaky and betrayed, I turn my own bow on him. No surprise—his whole expression goes blank, though his eyes do narrow on the arrow’s point.
Anger rushes through me.
“You’re big, yeah,” I tell Hunter. My hands are glowing again and that makes me even more frustrated and way angrier. “And you’re really tough. Now I know you can take an arrow and survive. Because you helped me—no matter why you did—I’ll try not to hit anything too important next time. Lie to me again?” I lower my gaze pointedly so he knows exactly where I’ll aim if he forces my hand. “I’ll make it hurt.”
“You’re cruel,” Alex says, crossing his legs where he stands next to Hunter. As if that would help any.
“No,” Hunter argues. He doesn’t alter his stance even a little. “She’s fair. And I deserve it.”
His agreement comes too easy. Please. How stupid does he think I am?
I sight down my arrow. “I’m only going to ask you this once.” If he lied about Artemis, and his injury, what else did he lie about? A little voice points out Hunter tried to tell me about Artemis at the start but I tune it out now, like I did then. “Is there really a way back for me? Or am I stuck? No more lies—from either of you.”
“Only truth, darlin’, I swear it. I haven’t been lyin’ about that. There’s hundreds of portals for you to take back to the other side. I just gotta find you the right one.”
Alex shoves Hunter. To my surprise, the push actually forces the bigger man to take a few steps away.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s only telling you what you want to hear. No lies, right?”
My laugh is hollow. “Do you even know how to tell the truth?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. Everything I said has been true. And you still want to play at honesty? Fine. There’s no way out.”
Stalk the Moon Page 14